Pre-Network

As recently as the early 2000s, many FGIMDs in children were not widely recognized as “legitimate” conditions. While it is now accepted that these conditions have underlying biologic mechanisms, more needs to be done to better understand how these conditions develop and manifest themselves. The persistent lack of fundamental understanding surrounding these conditions has led to a situation where accurate recognition and diagnosis can be difficult, and physicians have few effective treatment options and no cures.

Today

Thanks to your support and generosity, DHA Children’s GI Research Network has taken the lead in the efforts to identify and validate diagnostic criteria, and it is helping to develop innovative treatment options. The Network currently serves as a forum in which experts from different specialties can come together, discuss the different medical aspects of childhood FGIMDs, and outline an agenda for future research. In addition, the Network serves as the infrastructure that allows investigators to collect and share information from various sites across the country by utilizing a web-based data registry and the Research Informatics Core at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Initial projects are aimed at validating “red flags” (alarm signs) to improve diagnosis, and studying short and medium range outcomes for children suspected of having FGIMDs to better identify potential treatments. These projects are intended to establish the foundation for critically important large, longitudinal research studies, which we hope to execute moving forward.

Tomorrow

The next steps in the process to improve diagnosis and treatment of childhood FGIMDs have been identified (above right) by the medical experts affiliated with the DHA Children’s GI Research Network. With your generosity and support, we can initiate these research projects as soon as we have the funding for them.

Your Support Can Help Make These Future Projects a Reality

 

 

 

Bring an additional five centers into the Network to expand patient participation in research projects, and ultimately increase data collection and information sharing to improve the quality of data collected.

 

Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of inter-individual (and inter-center) variability in the diagnosis and treatment of children with FGIMD's and how this variability impacts health outcomes.

 

Establish a tissue / serum bank to study genetic factors involved in the development of FGIMDs and the mucosal factors involved in the biological and physical expressions (pathophysiology) of childhood FGIMDs